Tag: Deuteronomy 32

The Truth About Idols

On By TimIn 1 Timothy 03, Spiritual WarfareLeave a comment

Without question, great is the mystery of godliness:
God was revealed in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen by angels,
preached to the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
taken up into glory.

1 Timothy 3:16

Paul’s charge to his son in the faith Timothy is to reassure him that he knew how to conduct himself in the house of God. Amidst the instructions for overseers in the local church is this sentence which most think was a hymn or creed of those early Christians. It speaks of the mystery that we now know.

God is revealed in the flesh. The speaks of the incarnation of Jesus. Not that God changed places, but that He is revealed in flesh. This speaks to the Son’s existence before His virgin birth. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2, He being in the form of God. He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3.) The Son is Spirit being revealed in the flesh. Jesus taught us that God is Spirit (John 4:24.)

That’s part of the mystery. It continues. Jesus was not justified in the flesh, but justified in the Spirit. That is attested to in His resurrection. When He came back from the dead in a new body, it proved there was no other entity that could lay hold on Him.

He is preached to the Gentiles, basically the truth is being spread to all nations. He is believed on in the world. Many people are saved because He is preached. We know He is taken up into glory. He sits at the right hand of the Father, as God.

Seen by Angels

It is this idea that Jesus was seen by angels, that draws me in. Jesus being seen by the angels means they could identify Him as God readily. But does it entail that He is known by them before being manifest in the flesh?

There seems to be testimony to that fact. It occurs in one of the earliest accounts of Jesus’ ministry in Israel.

Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great crowd followed Him from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan. And those from Tyre and Sidon, a great crowd, when they heard what great things He did, came to Him. He told the disciples to have a small boat ready for Him because of the crowd, lest they should crush Him. For He had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed on Him to touch Him. When unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him, crying out, “You are the Son of God.” But He sternly ordered them not to make Him known.

Mark 3:7–12

If we take Mark’s Gospel chronologically here, this incident occurred before Jesus selected any of His inner-circle of twelve disciples.

What is clear is that the people around Jesus are the time did not really know they were in the presence of God. Let alone that He is made flesh. Yet those unclean spirits know and testify to the fact right. They could apprehend the spiritual reality readily. But a question comes to mind. Where did they come from?

So many details are not included. I think it safe to assume that Jesus was casting unclean spirits out of people. Those spirits identified Him immediately. And He commanded them to not reveal Who He is. Did the crowd present hear and what did they understand?

I don’t know. I know there were spiritual beings present by witness of the text. Are there any indications that some of those were angels?

The text lends itself to that idea. The Bible reveals that there are two kinds of unclean spirits, fallen angels and demons. Demons are the disembodied spirits from the progeny of some fallen angels, the Nephilim.

The Disembodied Spirits Called Demons

When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and took as wives any they chose.

Genesis 6:1–2

Way back toward the beginning of it all, Moses reveals that angels took wives. The language used is not pleasant, and it isn’t without controversy. The term Sons of God is used sparingly in the Tanakh. As it is used in other places, it always means angels. That is direct creations of God and this by that same title given to Adam in Luke 3:38. (There are other resources that delve into this concept, the tag cloud can help in that pursuit.)

The progeny of the fallen angels and their taken human women were called Nephilim. They were the mighty men of old.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:4

It is my opinion that the corrupted human bloodlines from these strange flesh unions were the vast majority of people that died in the flood. That idea comes from the Septuagint translation where it says that Noah was perfect in his generations. The Greek word translated is where the English word generations comes. It reveals a relationship to Noah’s genetics.

In fact, the entire incident of the ark hints that there were corrupted genetics in the human and animal kinds. God chose all the occupants of the ark. If Noah was perfect in his generations, it follows that the animals selected were perfect in theirs.

Now, it becomes a bit clearer that there are many unclean spirits, and kinds such as fallen angel and the disembodied spirits of angel/human hybrids known as demons. It follows that the unclean spirits (both angelic and demon) would see God as He is and readily identify Him in the flesh.

Before the Time

There is another encounter Jesus had with unclean spirits that is important to understand. It reveals yet another concept.

When He came to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two men possessed with demons, coming out of the tombs, extremely fierce, so that no one might pass by that way. Suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Matthew 8:28–29

These unclean spirits are specifically identified as demons. They identify Jesus’ divinity readily. Yet it is those two questions. Apparently they knew of certain timings. And they knew of torment, and their consignment to it. One might ask, is there punishment spoken of in the Bible?

It takes a bit of sleuthing to get it out of the Tanakh. So the first stop is the last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy. This particular Chester is full of details on the spiritual reality of Things.

They made Him jealous with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked Him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that recently came along,
whom your fathers did not fear.

Deuteronomy 32:16–17

Israel went to worship stage gods. These were actually demons. The Hebrew word is shedim, it appears only twice in the Bible.

The Israelis sacrificed to the demons. The text says these were new gods that recently came along. It seems to indicate that these came after creation. This is especially clear as it follows Genesis 6 above.

It bears mentioning that the mythological Golden Age hearkens back to the time when gods lived with humans. This would be before the flood. There is a stark difference between the mythological understanding and what God thinks of the days of Noah. There is a contemporary popular mantra announcing a new Golden Age. The Bible does tell us that the end days will be like the days of Noah. The gods will once again live with men.

There is a definitive judgment coming. And this is what the demons were alluding to about Jesus coming to them before the time. Jeremiah prophesied the demise of those gods.

Thus you shall say to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.

Jeremiah 10:11

Remember, in the encounter above that those demons also alluded to torment. That is a reference to eternal fire. Jesus told us the how and what for in that.

“Then He will say to those at the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:41

Eternal fire is made for the devil and his angels. By the testimony of the demons in the vicinity of the Gerasenes, they knew of their fate in torment. It follows that eternal fire is for the devil, fallen angels, and demons.

To come full circle, we are still before the time. The time comes in the judgment of the great day. The one reserved for all of the enemies of God, the Great White Throne of Revelation 20.

Idol Talk

This may shock the sensibilities of some. The idols of the Old Testament are real beings. They are not simple creations of carved wood and hammered metals. They are not figments of active imagination. They were and are real entities that take worship to themselves. They have a clear destination.

The loftiness of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;
the idols He shall utterly abolish.

Isaiah 2:17–18

I know that many think idols are the creation of vivid imaginations. They are not. This truth gets further confused because of the allegorization of the idea of an idol. One that reinforces the notion that they are figments of the imagination which take us away from God.

I think that this allegorization has led to many folks putting their guard down. In other words, the west has been trained not to see these things. That makes it harder to understand the stark reality of the enemies against us as a race.

For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

The truths revealed in the Bible don’t always lend themselves to a personal application. Sometimes, that might obscure the reality. It then seems a bit silly to say that something like football or food becomes an idol for people. It may seem to lend itself that way, but the idols of the Old Testament are clearly real entities. Ones who do not want humans to flourish.

Changing Allegiance

The purpose for this lengthy article is to expose the reality. The hope is for the body of Christ to shake off the silly thinking that idols are imaginary things that keep us from God. The truth is these are real entities who have real power, that is if one extends it to them. When Jesus went to the cross, He removed the bondage. People can be free of these besetting and disabling influences in Jesus’ name.

In the Tanakh, there is no sinners’ prayer. Though the invitation is there as a call to change one’s mind… To repent. The reality is that to leave idols is to change allegiance. To come to God is to change allegiance.

Which leads to an important biblical principle. One that many do not quite grasp. The spirit world tends toward the legalistic. They cannot go where they do not have rights. From the beginning, this principle is laid out. Adam yielded rights to the dominion he was given by God.

This point is personally extended and explained in the New Testament. One yields their members, thus giving rights and permissions to the unclean spirits. Jesus spoke of this in John 8. Paul shows all exactly what it is.

Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.

Romans 6:13

God does not work in anyone until one lets Him do it. Ephesians 1:13 clearly demonstrates this principle. It is a truth that clobbers some fatalistic lies taught by some circles of Christianity. The Bible is clear, one serves who one yields to serve. That is why the Bible uses the term servants and slaves, as these have masters.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you have yielded your members as slaves to impurity and iniquity leading to more iniquity, even so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit did you have then from the things of which you are now ashamed? The result of those things is death. But now, having been freed from sin and having become slaves of God, you have fruit unto holiness, and the end is eternal life.

Romans 6:19–22

The problem is that all have sinned. Universally, it is before anyone can know the requirements of the moral law. When that’s explained, the reality is all have missed the mark of perfection necessitated.

The ugly underbelly of that is a person who sins yields themselves to a master. Sin brings more sin, which brings death. Death brings judgment.

Jesus frees all from having to be bound to sin. When anyone repents and believes, God deposits His Spirit in that person freeing them from condemnation. The Spirit becomes a permanent presence and mark in them forever.

Indwelling Unclean Spirits

Another interweaving theme in the Bible suggests that the enemy counterfeits the things of God. It follows that those unclean spirits could also enter a person. There are many such cases detailed in the Scriptures. Consider what Jesus says about that from a different perspective.

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through dry places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation.”

Matthew 12:43–45

Even though the principle Jesus is teaching is not necessarily about demon possession. He is using that truth to explain the activities of those who questioned and mocked His divine authority. It is a stern warning against the real dangers of stubborn disbelief. The important consideration being taught is that rejecting Jesus lends one to be more open and vulnerable to the principalities and powers of the air.

Think back to Jesus’ ministry, and the early days of the apostles. Possession of a person by indwelling unclean spirits was real. Jesus, the apostles, and even some others did cast demons out of folks. But did that problem just go away?

From present reality, no. It certainly seems foreign to many in western Christianized nations. It is as if the enemy has subtly hidden himself and his tactics. The activity of unclean spirits recessed in a way to not really be detectable. In modern times, demon possession is really just fodder for ghost stories and scary movies.

It did not just disappear. I see the evidence more frequently than I want to encounter it. And I’ve had personal encounters. I think there is a marked increase as the time quickly approaches. It is a last hurrah.

There are some immediately discernible behavioral indicators of influence and even possession by unclean spirits. These behavioral indicators have increased exponentially in contemporary populations because of the late hour. So… How does this happen?

It certainly does not without a person presenting themselves for the very purpose. Sometimes those rights and permissions are coerced by trauma, whether the trauma is purposed for that or not. Sometimes they are granted when one willfully ingests hallucinogenics into their body. It doesn’t matter if using those substances is legal or not. Others present themselves purposefully, knowing exactly what it is they are doing.

The language I use is indeed nuanced for various reasons. Mainly, I am not yet led to write in further detail on the subject. The point is that there are real unclean spirits and they attempt to influence the world in the same ways they did at the time of Jesus.

Humans are in a real spiritual war!

The Turning Point

There’s a reason why much of this has slipped under the proverbial radar. It is to avoid detection. But why?

Well, that leads to one of my favorite things about what Jesus did at the cross.

He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and contrary to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed authorities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:14–15

It was the law that empowered sin because it exposed sin in everyone. At the cross, Jesus took the handwriting, really He took the certificate of indebtedness to sin and destroyed it. In effect, freeing the entire race of humanity from the bondage of sin. The enemies had to go underground. In light of the truth that nobody is bound to yield themselves to their influences.

It is the other part that is more important. He disarmed the authorities and powers. These unclean spirits really have no power, other than what anyone may be extended to them. Because Jesus removed the indebtedness, they have only whatever is willfully volunteered. The truth is that anything given can also be revoked by will. It is done in the name of Jesus Christ. It is by Him that folks are set free.

Concluding Thoughts

This is not meant to elicit fear. On the contrary, because Jesus died there is nothing to fear. As the introductory citation shows, His resurrection is proof of that.

For those who are reading, it may be that God is revealing some things to you. You may have extended rights and privileges you no longer want to do. That is easy to fix. You can revoke them at any time in the name of Jesus.

For those who have never really believed or changed allegiances, you can do that, too. Set your mind to serving God. Believe that Jesus did die. In so doing, demolished the certificate of indebtedness that shackled you. The proof is, He rose again. Believing that is what pleases God.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

The Sons of His Inheritance

On By TimIn Deuteronomy 32, Nephilim, Sons of God3 Comments

Can you show someone Jesus from this?

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9

This is Moses instructing the Israelis on their history. The history of the Jewish people includes them being chosen and set aside for the Lord by the Lord.

What many do not quite track in this passage… The “children of Israel” did not yet exist when the nations were formed. It helps to understand the background of this text. With that understanding, we gain some surprising insights into what an ancient Israeli might have known.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words As the people journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:1–2

Yes, it’s the Tower of Babel event. It is at the time of the first world leader.

They said to each other, “Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top will reach to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:3–4

Babel means the gate of the gods. (See page 170 here.) Many were not taught the real significance of this particular event. The popular teaching is that the people were trying to reach up to God. But that is not the purpose of the tower.

To understand the tower’s purpose, we need a bit more background. And that comes a few chapters back in Genesis.

When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and took as wives any they chose. The Lord said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is flesh; yet his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4

Before the flood, angels came down to men. They took women in exchange for technology. That idea we pick up from the account of Cain’s progeny in the latter part of Genesis 4. It is my thinking that it was the progeny of Cain that commiserated with the fallen angels. That’s another discussion. For the idea at hand, it suffices that Angels came down to men and had progeny called Nephilim.

It didn’t work out well for those angels who did that. Those angels that came down and took women were then locked away.

Likewise, the angels who did not keep to their first domain, but forsook their own dwelling, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Jude 6

It would seem to follow that the severity of punishment for coming down to take women and create progeny would serve as a deterrent.

Our text in Genesis 6 says this occurred before the flood… And would occur after. I would assert that things also changed after the flood, and it wasn’t so easy for angels to just come down to men as if they were instigating the exchange. The idea wouldn’t be attractive.

Then this tower, or gate of the gods, would be humans asking for the exchange. Humans would be the ones granting permission of rights. Hence the idea of building the gateway.

Concurrent with the incident here, we are introduced to another character important to Babel.

Cush was the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Even like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).

Genesis 10:8–12

Nimrod, the first world leader… Became a mighty one. The underlying Hebrew text seems to indicate that he became like those Nephilim of old. The Hebrew also indicates that he wasn’t a mighty hunter of game, but one that assailed other humans.

I would say that the construction of the tower was to provide a place to perform rituals. These rituals would extend rights and permissions from humans to angels.

The tower was also believed to have a bed chamber in it. Almost always, these types of rituals are sexual in nature. It would seem to be the case here, and given the mighty hunter of men, I would also offer that is necessary (meaning a particularly sanguine fluid in human bodies.)

I know it’s macabre. I know it’s dark. But there is a real Hero, a real Man to defeat all of this.

The end purpose of the tower was to call the gods down to commiserate with men. What happened next?

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men built.

Genesis 11:5

Well, the gods don’t come. But the Most High God over all the other gods (see Psalm 82) comes down. It’s like an unexpected plot twist.

The Lord said, “The people are one and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; now nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:6

This text needs no explanation. The ingenuity of humanity is explained. It is a powerful force because humans work together with one language and can do extraordinary things. With one language, what can be imagined can be accomplished.

So what does God do?

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:7–9

This is the establishment of the nations as explained by Moses in Deuteronomy 32 above. God gave 70 nations, established their lands, and assigned that as an inheritance. An inheritance to who?

Deuteronomy 32:8 says the children (or sons) of Israel. But Abraham wasn’t even born yet. How can that seeming conundrum be resolved?

Back before Jesus came, the common language was early Greek. Most Israelis at the time would know Greek but not Aramaic or Hebrew. At the behest of Ptolemy II, the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek by 72 Hebrew translators. There were six chosen from each tribe of Israel. That translation is commonly called the Septuagint.

I was always taught that the Septuagint was a post-Jesus forgery. A bit of pursuit in truth revealed that probably is not the case. Many of the quotations of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament were from the Septuagint. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls also exposes the folly of what I was taught. Besides, the very line a virgin shall conceive comes to us from the Septuagint Greek and not the Tanakh’s original Hebrew.

How does the Septuagint help our conundrum?

With the understanding of the Hebrew translators and the ideas they held from the Tanakh, it came in the translation. Our passage in Deuteronomy 32 is no different.

When the Most High distributed nations as he scattered the descendants of Adam, he set up boundaries for the nations according to the number of the angels of God.

Deuteronomy 32:8, Lexham English Septuagint

Angels of God does also mean sons of God. In other words, God put angels in charge of physical property and humans to populate that property. They were to be stewards… But it is easy to infer that didn’t happen. It is probably the impetus for the plethora of religions. Again, that’s another idea for another time.

The nations were given as inheritance to the sons of God. That is the important thing. It follows that sons inherit their father’s things. In this case, the sons of God inherited the nations from the Father.

For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:9

There is the 71st nation, Israel. It is allotted as an inheritance to the Lord given by the Most High.

Fathers do not inherit. Sons do. Moses is pointing directly to Jesus.

So, when someone tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God. They are wholly incorrect and do not grasp the weight of Scriptural evidence that undergirds what Jesus says to the Pharisees

Jesus answered them, “Though I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet if I do judge, My judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me bears witness of Me.”

John 8:14–18

The Pharisees then pose another question to Jesus. They believe what they know.

Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as He taught in the temple. No one arrested Him, for His hour had not yet come.

John 8:19–20

John adds the commentary that nobody attempted to arrest Jesus. In this exchange, the Pharisees reveal that knew the identity of Jesus. This is evidenced by the addition of the personal pronoun your… “Where is Your Father?”

They knew Who He is, the Son of Inheritance. Tragically, they didn’t know Him or His Father.

The Divine Council in the Tanakh

On By TimIn Angels, Psalm 082, The Divine Council5 Comments

In the last post I introduced a term called The Divine Council. The members of the Divine Council are close advisors to God. Those are the ones that carry out the desires of God in the affairs of His creation. At least, that is what is supposed to happen.

We also know that there is none like God. He is El Elyon, the Most High God. He did introduce these lesser gods in His word.

God stands among the divine council; He renders judgment among the gods.
“How long will you all judge unjustly and accept partiality of the wicked? Selah
Defend the poor and fatherless; vindicate the afflicted and needy. Grant escape to the abused and the destitute, pluck them out of the hand of the false.
“They have neither knowledge nor understanding; they walk in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken.”
I have said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you, but you all shall die like men, and fall like a man, O princes.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You shall inherit all nations.

Psalm 82:1–8

To review, the Hebrew in the first verse uses the word elohim twice. It’s saying: Elohim stands among the divine council; He renders judgment among the elohim. Some of us have been taught that Elohim is the name of God Himself. I think the term is much broader than the name of God. It is similar to the English word God. Meaning it is used as a proper title of the Most High and it is also a descriptor of a class of beings.

This practice is seen with a different word as a similar concept. It comes in another Psalm.

Let the heavens praise Your wonders, O Lord;
Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly sons is like the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the holy ones and awesome to all those who surround Him.

Psalm 89:5–7

As before, the juxtaposition of the word El translated to God and the word elim (the Hebrew plural of el) translated as heavenly sons is striking. It is also notable that there are many uses of the Tetragrammaton, that unspeakable name of God. Some say Jehovah, others say Yahweh.

Yet… This is where things start to get a bit blurry. It is not that they don’t make sense, but they tend to stretch the bounds of what we think we know.

As we saw in Psalm 89, Jehovah is in the midst of the assembly of the holy ones… The Divine Council. The text above provides us another descriptor of this assembly as heavenly sons. From these words, we bound off to a deeper truth.

Sons of God

Leave it to the Septuagint to help make a connection. The Septuagint was commissioned in the third century before the advent of Jesus. Tradition tells us 72 translators were tasked with transcribing the Hebrew Scriptures into the common language of the day… Koine Greek. Here is how those have translated this portion of the Psalm:

The heavens will confess your wondrous things, O Lord, and your truth in the assembly of holy ones. For who in the clouds will be likened to the Lord?
And who will be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?
God is glorified in the counsel of holy ones.
He is great and awesome upon all those who are around him.

Psalm 88:6–8 (Lexham English Septuagint)

The counting of the Psalms in the Septuagint is a bit different than it is in our Bibles. Those translators understood the Jewish mindset. The thinking at the time was Thai was an assembly of angelic beings. They were literally sons of God. In that Psalm, some of our modern translations use that exact phrase sons of God.

When examining the phrase sons of God in the Tanakh, the rare occurrences draw our attention. Those places where it is used have some importance in trying to understand what is being conveyed by the term. Many modern translations have incorporated the higher definition of meaning from an understanding of the Jewish texts. Texts and ideas which were in use long before the advent of Jesus.

For this endeavor, I am going to employ a different translation than I would normally use. It is the Lexham English Bible. This is a favorite study tool I use, because of the constant scholarship employed in translating it. The Bible is a product exclusive to Logos.

There are eight occurrences we will examine. So let’s go!

For who in the sky is equal to Yahweh? Who is like Yahweh among the sons of God.

Psalm 89:6 (Lexham English Septuagint)

This is our previous text. Let’s focus on the phrase sons of God. It is a literal translation from the Hebrew phrase bene elim. There is another, like it:

Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of God,
ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

Psalm 29:1 (Lexham English Septuagint)

This psalm again translates the Hebrew phrase bene elim into the English sons of God. The phrase sons of God is the binding tie leading us to a seemingly synonymous Hebrew phrase.

Bene Ha Elohim

The majority of the appearances of the phrase sons of God is translated from the Hebrew bene ha Elohim. (I’m not a scholar in ancient languages, and don’t think the capital letter applies but I added it for clarity.) It occurred five times. These passages are examined next.

We are introduced to the phrase sons of God by its first usage in the Bible. The writer did not provide any definition. It’s as if he expected us to know what he meant. It would be akin to us writing, “I wrote a text to a friend on my phone.” Someone who has not ever encountered cell phone would have no idea behind the meaning the author assumes his audience has. It is like that here:

And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, daughters were born to them. Then the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose. And Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not abide with humankind forever in that he is also flesh. And his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God went into the daughters of humankind, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty warriors that were from ancient times, men of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4 (Lexham English Bible)

The phrase sons of God appears twice in this citation. The Hebrew it is translated from is bene ha Elohim. The author writes assuming his audience knows who the sons of god are. There are three more times the phrase is used. They are in the Book of Job. And the usage there helps us to understand who the sons of God are.

And it happened one day that the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan also came into their midst.

Job 1:6 (Lexham English Bible)

And then one day the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan also came into their midst to present himself before Yahweh.

Job 2:1 (Lexham English Bible)

when the morning stars were singing together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:7 (Lexham English Bible)

These are the three places where bene ha Elohim appears in Job. From this, our understanding of who they are becomes a bit more refined. These sons of God are clearly angels. This is the pattern that develops, sons of God as used in the Tanakh, is a term applied exclusively to angels.

The Septuagint offers more corroboration.

And Noah lived five hundred years, and Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And it happened, when humans began to become numerous upon the land, and they had daughters, the angels of God, having seen the daughters of humans, that they were beautiful, took for themselves women from all whom they picked out. The Lord God said, “My breath will not at all reside.in these humans for very long because they are flesh, but their days will be one hundred and twenty years.” Now giants were upon the land in those days, and after that, whenever the sons of God visited the daughters of humans, they fathered children for themselves; those were the giants who were from long ago, the people of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4 (Lexham English Septuagint)

The underlying Greek is literal in the English. The difference is in the first translation of the Hebrew bene into the Greek angeloi (from which we get the English word angel.) The Septuagint moves the idea of sons to angels. The second usage literally translates the word bene to the Greek huioi (sons.) The 72 translators of the Septuagint rendered a faithful glimpse into the third-century BCE Judaism. In that mindset, these sons were angels.

Going back to the passage in Genesis 6 with some better background information, it stands out as weird, angels procreated with humans.. The language in Hebrew is far more coarse than what is translated. The word translated took using women as objects (to the verb) always has sexual connotations. It is used in Genesis 34 to describe Shechem’s rape of Dinah. The word translated as wives can also be translated as women regardless of their marital status. These angels took women as they desired.

Here is where what we know may be a bit blurry. We know the sons of God are angels. We know some of the sons of God acted immorally. We know that some (maybe all) of these sons of God were part of the Divine Council. These are collectively called fallen angels.

Circling back to Psalm 82 we see that this is an account where God judges the fallen angels. Fallen angels that were His viziers failed. Judgment is pronounced.

“They have neither knowledge nor understanding; they walk in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken.”

Psalm 82:5

What happened with these fallen angels that were a part of the Divine Council had far-reaching consequences. The sin mentioned in Genesis 6 had ramifications affecting all of the Earth. There are other sins of other fallen angels that had the same far-reaching implications with the same consequences. All will be judged and more is said about this elsewhere in the Bible, that will come up in a bit. For now, we see God’s judgment toward these.

I have said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you, but you all shall die like men, and fall like a man, O princes.”

Psalm 82:6–7

There are things to note in the text here. The word fall is translated from the Hebrew word napal. The Hebrew language is consonantal. Vowels are inferred. Each word is based on a root word. In this case, our root for napal is the three transliterated consonants NPL. Looking back at the Genesis 6 passage, the Hebrew word nephilim is translated into the English giants. The word nephilim shares the same common root as napal. Nephilim are the hybrid progeny of angels and humans.

In Psalm 82 judgment comes. It seems as if God is saying something akin to, “Y’all caused humans to fall and die, now you will know what it is like to fall and die.” In other words, they will encounter the same bondage they inflicted on Adam’s race, from the garden on.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You shall inherit all nations.

Psalm 82:8

This closing verse in this psalm leads us to the last verse on the series of eight connecting the term sons of God.

Bene Yisrael

When the Most High apportioned⌋ the nations, at his dividing up of the sons of humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God.

Deuteronomy 32:8 (Lexham English Bible)

Here we have the final usage of the phrase sons of God. It is translated from the Hebrew bene yisrael. There are some versions of the Bible that render this as the sons of Israel. Again, the Septuagint helps us to understand. It translates the phrase to angels of God.

Using the immediate context of this passage, let us consider what Moses is saying.

Remember the days of old, consider the years of previous generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:7–9

Moses admonishes the people to remember the days of old when God gave the nations their inheritance. He separated the sons of man and placed boundaries around them. But when was that?

The Inheritance of Nations

God gave the nations their inheritance after the flood when Noah’s sons had sons descendants. These are recorded in detail for us in Genesis 10. That chapter is referred to as the Table of Nations. It shows all people descend from Noah and his three sons. The Table of Nations is summed up with this:

These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations. From these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Genesis 10:32

As is often the way it works in the Bible, we are given a high-level overview, sort of like an executive summary. What follows the overview can contain details into the minutiae. This is the case here.

We encounter another one of those notable occasions where something weird happened. The people of one language and one accord were led by a world leader named Nimrod (which means we will rebel) to build a tower. God came to see what they were doing (that language is for us to understand, it’s not meant to be intimate He had to learn.) He came down to stop the work and scatter the people.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:8–9

That is how the nations got their inheritance. And this occurred long before Abraham was born. Which was long before Jacob was born. Which was long before God changed his name to Israel. It makes no sense for the term bene yisrael to literally refer to the sons of Israel when Israel did not yet exist. It seems as if those ancient translators knew this.

Now, some of us have a question. What is the inheritance?

It included the lands and languages given by God as already has been shown. There was another allotment to the nations.

Give good care to yourselves, for you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance, as you are today.

Deuteronomy 4:15–20

Wait, isn’t that saying there were stars of heaven allotted to other nations?

That’s like the earlier posts in this series on stars and angels which demonstrate that stars are angels. God allotted angels to the nations. The role they serve is inferred from many ideas, namely that angels are messengers. Most likely they were to shepherd the nations they had been allotted. This inference comes chiefly from God’s relationship to Israel. God chose His portion as Jacob (Dt 32:9.) He is the shepherd of Israel. It follows that His desire would be for goodness toward those people.

He assigned other angels to steward the other nations. These were called to mete out justice. They were appointed to represent God and do His work among the people they shepherded.

Something happened, though. It seems to have occurred quickly. At some point, these stars took on the worship of men. Instead of pointing men to the Most High God, they took that worship to themselves.

If there be found among you, within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, man or woman, who has acted wickedly in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded,

Deuteronomy 17:2–3

It is this continuous polluting of Adam. First in the garden. Soon after it was by genetics which had to be rectified by the flood. Then it came by ritualistic workings to corrupt the seed yet again at the tower incident. It is probably through the same old lie, “You shall be as gods.” It’s a recurring theme.

Now, these beings are polluting Adams’s race with false worship. I’m assuming to know that God would respond. Polluting other nations by taking the worship of men would become a stumbling stone for Israel. (I cannot help but think Rachel stealing Laban’s teraphim is more significant than we think.) It would be to pollute the Chosen incurring God’s wrath on them. It is a ploy to stop the Anointed One, the Seed of the Woman.

Conclusion

I know this was long. It is necessary foundational information. What we know so far, the Divine Council failed. The Divine Council consists of sons of God… Angels. There are fallen angels who work to pollute the seed of Adam… Chiefly the Seed of the Eve.

In the next post, we will examine these things in the New Testament. The understanding of what makes a son of God will become clearer. There will be new members of the Divine Council. God’s Master Plan has not yet been thwarted.